For many parents, letting children play with educational toys can help develop the brain, but is that really the case?

Educational toys only consume concentration.

A study published in 2015 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found that long-term play with educational toys led to a decline in the language quality and quantity of babies.

The main subjects of this study were 10-to 16-month-old babies.

The researchers found that when they played educational video games, their interaction with their parents decreased significantly.

When they play with building blocks and cloth books, they have more language communication with their parents, even though most of them are meaningless words.

Of course, some parents will think that although babies communicate less with their parents, listening to children's songs played by educational toys can also practice listening and improve their knowledge reserves.

Reality may disappoint parents, but not.

Such toys are generally easy to operate under the banner of reducing interaction with the baby. 2

For example, if you choose the nursery song mode, the toy will sing one nursery song after another.

Choose the story mode, and the toy will continue to tell stories, but will not ask the baby if he likes the story, which character he likes.

It can be said that there is no interaction with the baby, even if the baby has his own ideas about a story or song.

The toy will not care who to communicate with, ruthlessly stifling the baby's independent thinking and communication opportunities.

The only interaction between a baby and a toy may be the exploration of function keys.

When the baby figured out the pattern of each button, the toy's attraction to the baby basically disappeared.

This simple and tedious interaction only consumes the baby's concentration and does not help to develop the baby's imagination and creativity.

On the other hand, although these toys are not good for the baby's intellectual development, they often have lovely appearance and cool flashing lights, which can quickly attract the baby's interest.

When parents bring back payments from their babies, they soon lose interest in them and are attracted to newer and cooler toys.

When the baby is used to these simple and cool toys, he will lose interest in building blocks, cloth books and other toys that require concentration, and develop an impetuous character, which is not conducive to future study.

So how to develop the brain correctly?

1. Sleep.

If a person does not sleep well, various abilities of the brain, such as planning, problem solving, learning, concentration, and reaction to the outside world, will be affected.

During sleep, people's brains process new memories and skills.

For example, if you are learning new computer software, instead of staying up late into the night, you might as well go to bed after a few hours of study.

Because during sleep, your brain can revisit what you have just learned and turn it into a long-term memory.

In this way, when you wake up, you may have a higher ability to apply the software.

Similarly, skills such as driving and memorizing numbers also need enough sleep.

2. Exercise.

Studies have shown that walking three times a week for half an hour at a time can improve learning, attention and abstract reasoning.

This method is particularly effective for the elderly, who do better on memory tests than those who walk a lot.